NEWS&PRESS

Kaiser workers call for new election, stronger protection of workers’ rights

Employees’ choice thwarted by delays in NLRB enforcement, false fear campaign by SEIU and employer

Oakland, Calif.—One year and seven months ago, an absolute majority of 43,500 Kaiser Permanente employees in California presented petitions to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), asking for a vote to leave the incumbent union SEIU and form their own union, the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW). When ballots were counted today, 11,364 were for NUHW, and 18,290 were for SEIU—and workers are calling for a new election.

“Workers can’t have a fair vote when they don’t know they have the right to choose without being punished for it,” said Marie Foster, a program assistant at Kaiser San Jose for 23 years. “SEIU and Kaiser management threatened people’s livelihood and the NLRB didn’t take action to protect us until it was too late. This is a perfect example of why we need stronger laws and better enforcement to stop employers from making decisions that employees should make for ourselves.”

Today’s outcome was not the overwhelming majority for NUHW that caregivers could have won last year. For 19 months, SEIU employed legal obstruction tactics to deny workers’ right to vote. During that time, Kaiser illegally funded SEIU’s re-election campaign, paying for dozens of Kaiser employees to conduct full-time election campaigning on behalf of the incumbent union, and providing SEIU officials with conference rooms and access to campaign during new employee orientations.

NLRB asks federal court to award raises and full retro pay to NUHW members at Kaiser

The National Labor Relations Board petitioned a federal court yesterday for an injunction ordering Kaiser Permanente to immediately repay more than $1 million in illegally-withheld raises and other benefits that members of the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW) are entitled to under the terms of their union contract. The withheld raises had become the […]